Retrospective Metaphor Interviews as an additional layer in elicited metaphor investigations

Metaphor-elicitation protocols can provide data that allow researchers a window onto a participant’s conceptualizations on a particular target. These insights can be immensely useful for investigations of academic language and literacy learning. However, such studies can be greatly enhanced when the conceptualization data can be tied to actual learner practice. Through continued researcher-­participant discussion and examination of concrete examples – an extension of the standard stem-prompt completion approach – researchers can simultaneously ensure a richer data set through triangulation and also provide a built-in metaphor check. This chapter describes one such extension technique, called a Retrospective Metaphor Interview (RMI). A sample protocol and insights from two implementations of RMIs are provided to demonstrate the potential utility of this extension technique.